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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28834191">be something greater</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/allthefadinglights/pseuds/allthefadinglights'>allthefadinglights</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Formula 1 RPF, Formula 2 RPF, Motorsport RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Boys In Love, M/M, Mick and Callum are teammates at Haas, the only thing that happens is kissing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 08:21:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,235</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28834191</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/allthefadinglights/pseuds/allthefadinglights</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Thank god it’s you,” Callum says at the same time as Mick says “Congratulations.” It makes them both chuckle as the awkwardness of the situation melts away.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Callum Ilott/Mick Schumacher</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>101</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>be something greater</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The teammates we deserve. I'm still sad this is an alternate universe and not what's going to happen in F1 this year.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Signing the contract is arguably the best moment of Callum’s career. Of course, this is what they all do it for, the big moment they dream of as little kids. So to finally put his signature on the contract, realise he’s officially an F1 driver, is, frankly, insane. Only few drivers ever make it to F1, there’s only 20 seats and there are so many factors that come into play. And Callum knows he’s gotten lucky here. He can’t tell anyone, not yet, not until it’s officially announced, and it makes it really hard to keep it quiet. Everyone knows Mick has a seat, it’s the worst kept secret in the paddock, but Callum’s Haas seat will be a surprise announcement. Fine, so he hasn’t won the title. Mick’s beaten him to it, and as much as he wishes he hadn’t fucked up in some races - maybe things would’ve been different - vice champion is still a title he’ll happily take, in combination with the seat. He’s fought Mick for it all year long, so he’s not too bitter when he picks up his second place trophy and congratulates Mick on the title. </p><p>It’s only days later that Steiner calls Callum into his office. He’s curious, wondering what’s going on. He signed the contract, his first Haas duties won’t be for another week when he’ll be doing the Young Driver’s Test for them, so while curious, there’s also a little voice in the back of his mind insisting he’s about to be fired because they’ve found someone better. His reluctance must show on his face when he enters Steiner’s office, despite his best efforts to conceal it.</p><p>“We’re not firing you,” Steiner says straight away and Callum nods, breathes out deeply and lets go of the tension he’s been holding in his upper body. “It’s just a quick meeting to introduce you to your teammate, since neither of you know about the other’s signing yet.”</p><p>Callum will admit, he’s been curious about the other signing, hadn’t been told anything when he signed his own contract. It might be Mick, but it might be someone else entirely since the Alfa seats still haven’t been officially confirmed either. And for Haas to fill both their seats with a Ferrari junior? Not very likely, but not impossible. He braces himself for the worst - knows there’ve been drivers with rich fathers who’ve shown interest in investing in Haas in return for a seat. Of course, Mick isn’t exactly poor either so Callum assumes he’d bring quite some money as well.</p><p>It’s a relief and a weight off his shoulders when it’s Mick entering Steiner’s office, who looks just as relieved to see Callum there. “Obviously, you two know each other,” Steiner says, gesturing for Mick to take a seat. They go over the duties they’ll have as teammates, media things, promotional pictures, general PR. It’s not all that exciting, Callum’s done all of this before - from silly videos to official pictures, interviews. He knows Mick has as well. Steiner leaves them alone in his office while he gets himself another cup of coffee, leaving Mick and Callum to look at each other in silence. </p><p>“Thank god it’s you,” Callum says at the same time as Mick says “Congratulations.” It makes them both chuckle as the awkwardness of the situation melts away. It’s only now that Callum notices Mick isn’t wearing the cap that’s been practically glued to his head since he first raced against him in 2017. “Yeah, congratulations,” Callum repeats. “Obviously, as champion, you were bound to get a seat.”</p><p>“I’m glad you didn’t say ‘as a Schumacher’,” Mick replies, light frown on his face as he looks at the floor. </p><p>“Of course not,” Callum huffs. “You didn’t become champion because we all moved aside to let the mighty Schumacher through. I’ll have you know I gave you a run for your money.” It makes Mick smile, takes the frown off his face. “You were the best, so you got a seat. Simple as that.” He remembers Mick’s words to him vividly, just after the final race. <i>If you’d have won, I would’ve been happy for you.</i> To be fair, Callum doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to forget them. He knows it’s rare in this sport, in the highest tier of single seaters, to have a teammate and a rival who respects you as much as you respect them. Sure, friendships are more and more common within the sport but even Callum hadn’t expected himself to take a championship loss this easily, just because it was Mick. </p><p>Steiner returns with his coffee, makes them go over the details in their contracts again and ends the meeting by telling them to stop by the tailor’s to get their sizing taken for clothes and suits. Just before they leave, he calls after them that Callum’s announcement will go out first, tomorrow, and Mick’s the day after. Callum knows it’s so he can have his five minutes in the spotlight before the news of Mick’s seat takes over the media for the next two weeks. </p><p>“So, teammates,” Mick says as they’re standing outside Steiner’s office. “We probably shouldn’t keep up the age old Haas tradition of hitting each other on track.” Callum can’t help but snort at that. “The big boss would blow a gasket.” </p><p>“Probably,” Callum agrees, and then, “I really am glad it’s you. I know we’ll be doing our own thing but it’ll make media commitments a bit more fun.” Mick agrees as they part ways. Callum feels Mick’s eyes following him all the way down the stairs and into the paddock until he’s out of sight. He’s so fucked. Marcus will never let him live it down.</p><p>“Mick?” Marcus screeches over the phone as Callum holds it as far away from his ear as he can. Fine, he wasn’t technically allowed to tell anyone aside from his family about the seat until the news dropped, but Marcus is an exception. Callum would, usually, trust Marcus with his life - just not with a stove or anything else remotely endangering public safety. “Are you actually serious? You’re gonna team up in your rookie year in F1 with the guy you’ve liked for ages? You’re gonna have to do PR with him? Oh, I can’t wait to see this.” </p><p>“I hate you,” Callum says before he hangs up, the sound of Marcus laughing ringing in his ears. He knew it was a mistake to tell Marcus he liked Mick, but he’d been drunk at the time and drunk Callum cannot be trusted with any sensitive information. Marcus texts him a bunch of laughing emojis and Callum considers blocking his number, but decides against it when he reads the next one. It is, in typical Marcus fashion, a combination of being a supportive best friend and making fun of him like there’s no tomorrow. <i>despite the absolute hilarity of this (admit it, its funny) i know u can do it!!!</i></p><p>Winter break is almost unbearably long, knowing he’ll get to drive in F1 this year. Even his parents comment on how impatient and restless he is. The first race can’t come soon enough. Mick stays in touch with him, texts him over the holidays and sometimes sends him a picture of his dog Angie. Callum replies with pictures of Poppy, and it makes the wait a little more bearable. </p><p>And then Callum finally finds himself getting ready for the first free practice, his first practice as a Haas F1 driver. Thankfully, it goes off without a hitch.</p><p>It’s in third free practice when things go south. Callum’s on a fast lap, his first of the day, when there’s a slow car on an outlap ahead of him. His engineer warns him - Callum assumes the slow car has been told he’s coming and will move out of the way. Instead, the other car weaves to get temperature in his tyres, causing Callum to take evasive action which sends him spinning into the barriers rear first. After the initial shock of the impact wears off and Callum checks all his limbs to see if he’s fine, he tells his engineer he’s all good. The damage done to his car is big - the rear wing’s hanging by a thread, the suspension is fucked, and the floor has major damage. He’s not sure if they can fix all this before qualifying, and despite knowing he’d never make Q2 in his first race anyway, it’s still a bitter pill to swallow if he’s not even going to be able to partake in qualifying. </p><p>“Who was it?” he asks once he’s back in the garage, watching as trucks clear up the debris his car has left on the track and the marshals check the barriers for damage. His engineer exchanges an uncomfortable look with a mechanic and no one seems to be willing to answer him. That, really, says enough in itself. “Right, so it was Mick.” </p><p>“Yeah, sorry mate. They told him too late you were on a flyer and he didn’t see.”</p><p>“He’s got mirrors, doesn’t he,” Callum mumbles, disappearing into his driver’s room to put away his helmet and gloves and change into some normal clothes. A member of the team tells him he has to stop by the medical centre to get checked out, make sure he hasn’t suffered any injuries in the incident. Callum insists he feels fine but knows he has to go anyway. By the time they give him the all clear and allow him to leave, the session’s already over and the paddock is flooded with press. Fantastic. He’s going to have to answer questions if he wants to get back to the Haas hospitality. As angry as he is with Mick, he knows very well he can’t exactly go mouthing off to the press about it, knows Steiner might actually suffer a meltdown if he does. As it is, he’s going to get told off for speaking to the press without PR present, but it’s not like he has much of a choice when there’s microphones and cell phones being shoved under his nose, blocking his way to the hospitality.</p><p>Callum smiles politely at the cameras, even though his inner monologue is something far less polite, and curtly answers that these things can happen and he’s going to have to watch back the footage before giving any in-depth thoughts about it. It’s very much rehearsed, one of those standard answers they’re told to give in cases like these, but it won’t get him killed by his team and it doesn’t throw Mick under the bus. They’re summoned to the stewards in half an hour, so Callum takes that time to read his texts and scroll through Twitter to see what the general opinion is on the incident. There’s too many people commenting something along the lines of ‘see, he’ll never live up to the Schumacher legacy’ and somehow, it really pisses Callum off. Yeah, he’s mad at Mick but he also knows these things happen and it was just an unfortunate incident. All Marcus has texted him is <i>FUCK</i> and he has to say, he agrees with that sentiment. </p><p>There’s a knock on his door as Callum checks his watch, frowning when he sees it’s not time to be at the stewards’ office just yet. But when he opens it, it’s Mick standing in front of him. He lets him in without a word, settles back down on the sofa looking at Mick expectantly. “I’m sorry,” Mick says. “I didn’t see you, my engineer told me too late and I was looking at my dashboard and not in my mirrors.” How is Callum supposed to stay mad when Mick looks this guilty? “Whatever you said to the press about me, I’m sure it was deserved.”</p><p>“Oh, shut up,” Callum says as he gets up. “You know I wouldn’t throw you under the bus like that even if you steered into me on purpose.”</p><p>“Why wouldn’t you?” Mick asks. He looks genuinely confused. “We’re competitors.”</p><p>“Because-“ Callum starts as he suddenly finds himself very close to Mick, “because…”</p><p>“Because what?” Mick says quietly and Callum really has had enough. He drops his phone on the sofa as he yanks Mick closer to him, pressing their lips together as he shudders at the sound Mick makes against his lips. But he’s not pushing Callum away, kissing him back with just as much enthusiasm instead. “Fuck,” Mick whispers against his lips and Callum shuts him up by kissing him again, this time with a bit more tongue. He knows they shouldn’t be doing this, knows they can get caught easily because the door isn’t locked and someone from the team could come in any minute to get him. But he can’t stop himself as he deepens the kiss, pulls Mick impossibly closer to him, unable to stop himself from moaning. “We shouldn’t be doing this,” Mick mumbles, but he keeps kissing Callum anyway, slides a hand up his shirt. They jump apart when there’s a knock on the door, breathing hard and straightening their shirts. </p><p>“Callum, we gotta get going if we don’t want to be late to the stewards’ office,” his PR manager says. </p><p>“Yeah, I’ll be right there,” Callum replies, praying he won’t come in because they’re both out of breath and looking dishevelled, and there’s no doubt as to what they’ve been doing. He hears footsteps receding however, so he reaches out to fix Mick’s hair. “I- we-“ It’s like he’s suddenly lost all ability to string together a cohesive sentence, but Mick smiles at him as he runs his hand through Callum’s hair. </p><p>“Meet me at my hotel room after qualifying? I’ll text you the room number,” he says softly, fixes the collar of Callum’s shirt before slipping out of the room.</p><p>The implications of that knock the breath out of Callum entirely, though he sternly tells himself they’re going to have to talk about this before anything else can happen. He puts on a neutral expression, follows his PR manager to the stewards’ office, manages to look at Mick without blushing like an idiot as they both explain their sides of the incident. They decide on no further action, after telling Mick he needs to check his mirrors more. It doesn’t fix Callum’s car, but having Mick start his first race with a grid penalty would’ve been too harsh. Thankfully, it doesn’t take his engineer long to tell Callum, once he returns to the garage, that they will be able to fix his car well before qualifying. It cheers him up immensely. </p><p>Qualifying goes off without a hitch. Neither of them make it through to Q2, but 16th and 17th isn’t dead last, at least. There’s only a minor difference between their lap times, so Steiner tells them he’s satisfied with their performance before he sends them into the briefing. It’s late once they’re done, first qualifying of the year always requiring a lot of debate and points of improvement to be discussed. Mick shoots Callum a look before he leaves the room and Callum feels a horrible blush creeping up his face. He dashes out of the room as soon as he can, taking a minute in the safety of his driver’s room to sit and breathe, trying to stop himself from thinking about what might happen in Mick’s hotel room. The whole ride back to the hotel is a blur as Callum finds himself in his own room dropping off his backpack and changing into a regular t-shirt instead of a Haas branded one. </p><p>His heart is in his throat as he knocks on Mick’s door a few minutes later. He has a momentary flash of panic - what if this is the wrong room? How is he going to explain knocking on the wrong person’s room? - when Mick opens the door. His throat dries up when he sees Mick in casual clothes - a black shirt and grey sweatpants - and his voice comes out all wrong when he tries to say hi. Mick invites him in with a soft smile, closes the door behind him as Callum halts in the middle of the room. “Hi,” Mick says quietly, pulling Callum into a hug. “You look like you’re about to have a breakdown.” </p><p>Callum laughs, a slightly hysterical edge to it. “I feel like I’m about to shit bricks, not gonna lie.”</p><p>“It’s just me, and by now, you’ve probably already figured out I like you.” Callum’s not sure how Mick is staying this calm, feels like he could learn a thing or two. “And I’m assuming you like me, so let’s just sit down and talk. No expectations, and no sex, because we have a race to drive tomorrow.” Callum would laugh at that if he hadn’t just nearly choked on nothing. “Callum.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Callum breathes out, relaxes into the hug and lets Mick lead him to the edge of the bed. “Sorry, I think I just freaked out.” Mick presses a soft, sweet kiss to his lips. </p><p>“I’m really sorry about this morning,” Mick says again. </p><p>“It’s okay,” Callum says. “I got to do qualifying so it’s all good. Besides, the stewards decided on no further action, so they clearly thought you weren’t to blame.”</p><p>“I was, though,” Mick argues. “I should’ve been checking the mirrors before weaving. I know I can’t always rely on the team to get info to me as fast as it’s needed.”</p><p>“If you’re gonna insist on using that mouth, at least put it to good use,” Callum murmurs as he presses his lips to Mick’s again. It’s strange, being able to do this, being able to just kiss Mick whenever he wants to and have him kiss back. To know his feelings for Mick are mutual. Mick laughs into the kiss, lets Callum deepen it as he slowly crawls up the bed, having Callum follow him until he’s settled on the pillows with Mick on top of him. They end up making out on the bed for the better part of an hour, taking their time to explore each other’s bodies - though the only thing that comes off is their shirts. Callum doesn’t want to take it too far, this thing between them is still very much new and jumping straight into <i>that</i> isn’t the best idea. They’re both still hard, though, when Mick finally pulls away to settle in next to him, gently pulls Callum’s head onto his chest.</p><p>“We should do this more often,” Mick comments when he’s finally caught his breath, and Callum laughs.</p><p>“Yeah, we should. Luckily, we’re in the same team and our driver’s rooms lock. Though, I’m fine with just spending the time at the hotel with you and maybe not risk both our careers.” </p><p>“Yeah, might be for the best,” Mick hums. “Stay with me tonight?” Callum hesitates for a second until he looks at Mick and the poorly concealed hope in his eyes and agrees to stay. </p><p>Later, when Mick is curled around his back, it’s dark outside, and he’s slowly drifting off to sleep, he feels Mick press a kiss to his shoulder, and he smiles. It’s not quite what he expected from his first weekend in F1, but the idea of being able to share all of this with Mick, experience their rookie year together… Callum can’t wait.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I would kindly like to ask you to refrain from commenting anything about Mick's actual teammate for this year. I'd rather keep any mention of him away from my works.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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